The $38.6 trillion in unfunded benefits Medicare is expected to pay over the next 75 years equals $328,404.43 for each of the 117,538,000 households the Census Bureau said there were in the United States in 2010.

Here comes the single bride. Last week, Nadine Schweigert married herself in a symbolic wedding ceremony. The 36-year-old divorced mom of three wore blue satin and clutched a bouquet of white roses as she walked down the aisle before a gathering of 45 friends and family members in Fargo, North Dakota.

She vowed to "to enjoy inhabiting my own life and to relish a lifelong love affair with my beautiful self," reports Fargo's InForum newspaper . After the ring was exchanged with the bride and her inner-groom, guests were encouraged to "blow kisses at the world," and later, eat cake.

In countries with declining birth rates and an aging population like the U.S., economic growth may slow. Sixty per cent of the world's population will live in cities.

Food, water and energy will be more scarce. “Nearly half of the world's population will live in areas experiencing severe water stress,” the report said. Africa and the Middle East will be most at risk of food and water shortages, with China and India also vulnerable.

Among the anticipated crises is the worry of global economic collapse, fighting among nations that don't adapt rapidly enough and the possible spillover of instability in the Mideast and South Asia to the rest of the world.

And they rediculed Mitt "The Glove" Romney for his 47% quote. I recall the Wall Street Journal running an oped piece predicting this election being the first in US history to be won on the basis of government handouts.

Among the anticipated crises is the worry of global economic collapse, fighting among nations that don't adapt rapidly enough and the possible spillover of instability in the Mideast and South Asia to the rest of the world.

History tends to show that the danger of regional conflicts is fairly low when there is a single hegemonic power like the US. A single global arbiter of force will tend to keep most conflicts fairly localized as the ambitions of any strong regional players will be kept in check by the greater force. The danger lies in the loss of will, real or apparent, of the United States or an appreciable decrease in our military power. With the budget sequestration goes into effect defense, among other things, is going to take a large cut in funding. The way that Obama's foreign policy alienated allies (Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, Philippenes/Taiwan/Japan) and infuriated Russia and China (in Syria, Iran, and other places) they are likely going to be looking for some payback. With our scheduled retreat from Afghanistan, defense budget cuts, and increasing focus on the worsening economic crisis at home, our Will will be seen as weakened (and will likely be weakened) and our military power visibly enfeebled, expect various local/regional problems to be expanded by Chinese/Russian interference. Without the calming influence of US military force, watch as the Ankara-Tel Aviv-Riyadh Axis faces off against the Tehran-Moscow-Peking Axis to fight over the remains of Syria/Iraq. Europe's energy supplies will be gravely threatened but they will be powerless to respond and any EU consensus would likely be broken by aggressive pipeline politics by both sides. Any number of locations along the periphery of East Asia would likely be threatened by China and may be resisted by various combinations of our Pacific allies... but just like in the late 50's, in the absence of American power east Asian nations will be isolated one by one and come to various accomadations with China until the vital sea lanes of the east are dominated by a power hostile to freedom of the seas. All this will just further deteriorate our economy and the global order as the mutually-beneficial trade order we've built over the past 60 years with a core of strategic allies will fall apart. As long as we can preserve the peace, the structure of the economic order will remain in place until more economically adept political leadership can be elected/selected. Both Rome and Britain suffered through various economic problems, but as long as they held the far frontier, the system righted itself and continued to benefit the most.

Sub Saharan Africa is also a multiregional powderkeg with many of the same global actors involved. Chinese and US interests are set to clash therein. There isn't anything outside major powers can do militarily if and when China and India clash over fresh water. China is damming it up for hydropower and dumping for industry. India needs the same water sources for its own people and industries.

Sub Saharan Africa is also a multiregional powderkeg with many of the same global actors involved. Chinese and US interests are set to clash therein. There isn't anything outside major powers can do militarily if and when China and India clash over fresh water. China is damming it up for hydropower and dumping for industry. India needs the same water sources for its own people and industries.

Word, homie. Some five million have died in Zaire/Democratic Republic of Congo since 1996. Rare earth metals and foreign funded militias abound in this area. Something like 20 African nations are covertly involved and most of them are backed by outside powers. I figure all sides will keep things in the hands of locals here, regional militias/defense contractors will cover the mining areas and seek corporate protection; the never-existent sovereign power of these African states will become an increasingly obvious smokescreen for business interests. Look to South Africa - the communist ANC comes to power in the early 90's but DeBeers nonetheless dictates its own policy regarding its diamond and chromium mines and pays former Rhodesian mercenaries to guard it. During the cold war only Cuba ever committed large numbers of soldiers (40,000+) to fight in Africa and only then when the USSR provided the money for the venture. Nobody wants to put 'boots on the grouond' in sub-saharan Africa, its a fucking shithole beyond compare... during the cold war we let our South African proxies take care of business for us. The question is, will defense contractors and covertly funded militias be enough to fill the vacuum of the absence of an actual state as far as executing policy across a continent?

Also keep an eye on the Northern Polar region: England, Norway, Russia, and Canada are all quietly moving military assets to cover this region which is supposed to be rich in minerals. And water man, everywhere there is going to be a big squeeze on water with huge problems concerning large rivers that flow through multiple nations.

"Even microscopic plankton in the North East Pacific have been found to have particles of plastic in their system. [4] In addition to the amount of plastic toxins leeching into oceans through ground water and plastics breaking down at sea, the process of bioaccumulation has the toxins present plastic traveling up the marine food chain."

What would be known as cancer. A rather blaring aspect of modernity. People are going to fall hard on their next ten years.

I am quite positive that many people will transition well to a more natural sense of stress, mostly from hunger anyways. Virtu is making a comeback.

As for our plastic, I bet it makes a nasty plasma you don't want in your lungs. If anything can be let to waste, they are the polluted corpses of our epic space battles.

New technologies, dwindling resources and explosive population growth in the next 18 years will alter the global balance of power and trigger radical economic and political changes at a speed unprecedented in modern history, says a new report by the U.S. intelligence community.

The 140-page report released today by the National Intelligence Council lays out dangers and opportunities for nations, economies, investors, political systems and leaders due to four “megatrends” that government intelligence analysts say are transforming the world.

Gloom isn't doom at all. It is just an alternate set of opportunities that differ from sunny times, at least for people paying attention like the report says. It is only doom for those in denial in status quo land.